New Scientist has details on an interesting overture to software pirates in Syndicate that was found in Starbreeze's newly released first-person shooter by reddit's MikkelManDK. Apparently legit copies of the game include an .nfo file that would normally be found in a cracked copy with two simple instructions: "1) Insert disc 2) Play ;)". This apparently also offers pirates the chance to apply for jobs and asks them to consider the years spent by hundreds of people making the game before stealing it.

And Jerykk, I disagree. Of course this is most readily compared to DX. You can split hairs and say "well, I mean, this game uses shift as the default duck, as does Quake 2, so this is most readily comparable to that," but most people only go as deep as general setting and type of game. These are both futuristic society based shooters.

Calling DX:HR a shooter is selling it short. Yes, you can shoot, but you can also sneak, punch/stab and talk your way through most of the game. Comparing Syndicate to DX is like comparing Need For Speed to GTA. Yes, you can drive in both series but the first is focused entirely on driving while driving is simply part of the latter. Syndicate is not trying to be an RPG. It's trying to be a highly linear, highly scripted, cinematic shooter. I personally prefer RPGs but I'm not going to call Syndicate crap simply because it isn't an RPG. Now, if Syndicate fails as a shooter, then it deserves to be called crap.

For what it's worth, I doubt Starbreeze had much say in the game's direction. EA wanted to revive/milk the series, so they farmed it out to interested developers. And hey, what better way to revive a series than to turn it into an FPS regardless of the series' roots? If Starbreeze had insisted on making a tactical strategy game instead, EA would have simply given the project to another developer. This is the sad reality of big-budget game development.

Well, story only was brought up because in the Syndicate remake the story goes into the anti-syndicate direction. Where as previous Syndicates all had "your syndicate vs them" story. There was no reason to divert, exploring your own Syndicate (the size of several nations) could have gained them huge depth but Star-Breeze obviously did not even try to put some depth into the whole thing, we hear of Syndicates but it feels like we never really fight a unique syndicate.

Heck, in DX HR Tai Yong Medical is displayed as a true super corporation/near syndicate and even in that fleeting encounter is more fleshed out a corporation than the whole syndicate game series combined.

And yeah, setting and society direction are near identical, its just that DX HR fleshed the whole thing out properly and had the whole Trans-human and machine-vs-biology angle going on as well.

In Syndicate the 2012 game, they even forgo the cybernetic angle completely, and instead focus on the chips, which is downright stupid. Even the original syndicate was about cybernetic augmentations primarily alá ghost in the shell, full cyborgs, brain cases, etc.

DX HR didn't go that far because a brain-case would be fairly unrealistic by 2027.

So much potential wasted by Staar Breeze.. how sad. This could have been the 2nd DX HR - instead.. they failed at even making good basic shooter.

I remember very broad themes, but not a single thing you could call a "plot."

And Jerykk, I disagree. Of course this is most readily compared to DX. You can split hairs and say "well, I mean, this game uses shift as the default duck, as does Quake 2, so this is most readily comparable to that," but most people only go as deep as general setting and type of game. These are both futuristic society based shooters.

They already set that up in the intro mission though and it was OK a setup there, but 3 times within less than 3 hours?

Also in the Intro mission we did not have any gameplay yet so as a cutscene and mood setter that was legit story telling, but in the train they explicitly take away our control so we don't interfere with their mass-murder sequence. That's something I expect from 4rd grade slasher movies, not a AAA (supposedly) Game in 2012.

It's like whoever wrote this story had never heard of interactive storytelling before, or maybe they just didn't get their point through when they got funded by EA, or maybe they just cut some massive corners.. in any case a huge disappointment... could have been a DX HR like game, is just yet-another-failed-cod-clone a tube-shooter of the worst kind.

There is just no way around it - this game has to compare to Deus EX HR, particularly as the setting is nearly 100% identical. DX HR actually wasted many opportunities to send a strong message and yet still had more substance than 50 Syndicate /Remake\ games combined.

I don't think this game is really competing with DX. DX:HR was an open-ended action RPG, whereas Syndicate is a rigidly scripted and linear corridor shooter. It's competing more with Call of Duty than DX:HR.

I do agree that it would have been nice to have had some meaningful choice in Syndicate. That would have made it a far more compelling game.

The train murder scene has absolutely no reason to exist. Its just shock effect for the sake of it.

I can't really agree with that. The purpose of the violence is to help establish Merit's character and the nature of the business itself. It really nails down the fact that Merit holds no regard for human life and that he very likely does such things on a regular basis, which in turn gives you a good sense of how your corporation conducts business. These scenes were created for that specific purpose. It should be noted that there are many scenes in the level where you have the option of killing civilians but the freedom to refrain. The fact that you can't prevent Merit from killing civilians is disappointing, but it doesn't mean that his actions serve no purpose.

Yeah but.. the impact from shooting 8 pixel large things and fully animated, voiced and pleading civvies in HD is a bit different. I realize they mean to put some kind of message out, but they glorify the murder in a bad way, the train the guy.. met, or Melt or whatever, shoots civilians left and right, and we have not even the option to oppose it.

There is just no way around it - this game has to compare to Deus EX HR, particularly as the setting is nearly 100% identical. DX HR actually wasted many opportunities to send a strong message and yet still had more substance than 50 Syndicate /Remake\ games combined.

And when a game has me follow some dude who constantly slaughters civilians the line to tasteless is crossed.

Syndicate goes for shock-effect with that. There is no message by saying "Times are different" we the players are in *this* time, and the player decides what are appropriate ROE's.

Its also funny that the game actually got denied classification in Germany for this particularly Issue and for once I actually agree with that. Doesn't happen often ;p The train murder scene has absolutely no reason to exist. Its just shock effect for the sake of it.

Also from the let's play, this game seems to be go overboard with the random violence against unarmed civilians and never even comments on it. That is the lowest of the low. Cheap shock effect, 0 substance. A game to avoid, not just because its a bad game, but whoever wrote the story and game had absolutely no clue whatsoever. Makes me literally sick that games like these that glorify violence in such way are even funded by anyone.

I have to assume you've never played the original Syndicate. Civilian casualties were commonplace. The idea is that the corporations (and the agents they employ) have no empathy and are willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. If that means killing non-combatants, so be it.

Not that I'm saying that the new Syndicate is good or anything like that. I'm just saying that the indiscriminate slaughter of civilians is nothing new to the series.

Final line is this, if hundreds of people spent years making this game, they should feel VERY sad. This game is bad, no way around it. A mediocre shooter in an ocean of great shooters. Heck, its a tube game, you never even divert a meter from the intended line, stupid arcade boss fights, button mashing and glow so bright the church of the nuclear apocalypse would instantly make this their poster game.

Also from the let's play, this game seems to be go overboard with the random violence against unarmed civilians and never even comments on it. That is the lowest of the low. Cheap shock effect, 0 substance. A game to avoid, not just because its a bad game, but whoever wrote the story and game had absolutely no clue whatsoever. Makes me literally sick that games like these that glorify violence in such way are even funded by anyone. Particularly EA, who you'd think would have some brains to spot when a game crosses the border into the "tasteless and sick" region.

It's a good thing i watched a let's play, I'd have deleted it after playing an hour.

Luke wrote on Feb 25, 2012, 19:25:And yet another console game has been released to pc smashing your keyboard to open this door or getting free from chair...once there were games for pc now its all converted console games ´s

I will agree this is a typically-Console aspect... But I hate it equally across any platform : )

Bhruic wrote on Feb 25, 2012, 16:14:I suspect in a year or two, should EA make an actual effort to improve Origin, a lot of the people who are now saying they'd never use it will, in fact, be using it. Similar to the way that a lot of people who wouldn't use early Steam (myself included) now prefer it. But that's contingent on EA not totally fucking this up, which is entirely possible.

Origin isn't a new thing, it's been around for quite a long time as the EA Download Manager. Since the rebranded release it hasn't been improved in anything other than minor fixes with no word from EA about when or if actual improvement will occur at all. Why put work into something when you can just ignore your largest competitor and try to siphon off its users?

I think you hear more of it because there's alot of gamers who hate EA just for the sake of them being the largest video game publisher in the world.

It's more the WoW phenomenon. When WoW first came out, it was pretty buggy, lacked content, etc. Nowadays, it's more stable, has a lot more content, etc. So when a new MMO comes out, which does it get compared to? Early WoW, or current WoW?

Early Steam sucked, current Steam is quite good. So should Origin get compared to early Steam or current Steam? There's no denying that Origin has issues, lacks a large stable of games, or that EA has handled issues surrounding it poorly. So compared to current Steam, Origin is pretty poor. Compared to early Steam, however, Origin is probably a step or two ahead.

I suspect in a year or two, should EA make an actual effort to improve Origin, a lot of the people who are now saying they'd never use it will, in fact, be using it. Similar to the way that a lot of people who wouldn't use early Steam (myself included) now prefer it. But that's contingent on EA not totally fucking this up, which is entirely possible.

The reason I like Steam is that it presents titles from numerous studios - just like a B&M store. It doesn't stick the titles corporate doesn't like in the back with all the used titles in front, it also presents indie titles with equal measure, which a B&M store would never do.

EA is a publisher first: for the sake of not selling their games exclusively online, they have a few titles that they didn't make, and so they can't be called out for boycotting - they also sell online in smaller stores.

Anyone can read between the lines and the line: each publisher having their own store, their almost exclusive store, is bad for customers. People may defend Steam for reasons that aren't entirely rational - but there is good reason to express financial displeasure for these antics.

If you want a rallying call for an alternative to Steam, by all means you have my support. Only a company that is willing to give everyone reasonable selling-space, at reasonable costs should be considered. In my opinion, EA, Actibliz or UBI have no ability to do this - their shareholders won't allow it.

Spektr wrote on Feb 25, 2012, 13:30:yes I've heard this game sucks. Nobody's going to pirate it lol

For some people, the suckiness of a game has nothing to do with if they are going to pirate it or not. Some people do it just because its out there, even though they will never actually play the game (i.e. they are "collectors" of a sort).

There's a lot of reasons people pirate.

Also, that assumes everyone is going to agree with you on the suck factor of the game. Not everyone thinks like you do, some people will actually like the game.

People just complain for the sake of complaining and because this is EA's one.

There were plenty of complaints about steam back in the day. And now it's EA's turn. If they have an unproven track record (and they certainty do), and provide shitty service (as people here have mentioned how they paid for games and not got them for 48 hours+) they get called on it. If people can't handle that, they shouldn't read the thread.

I think you hear more of it because there's alot of gamers who hate EA just for the sake of them being the largest video game publisher in the world.

Where as Valve always had their stable of defenders even when Steam first hit the scene. EA doesn't have that luxury.

It's in the same vein as Biodrones as I like to call Bioware fanbois, who defend day 1 DLC and blame EA completely for Bioware essentially deciding to sell out and take the turn into being a slightly above mediocre dev with huge marketing budgets and rushed titles.

I look at Origin as just another digital distribution platform even with the outcries that it's going to scan your system and sell your banking info to some prince in Nigeria or whatever other ridiculous claims people want to make again just due to it being EA.